If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.

The Muscle and Brawn Forum is dedicated to no nonsense muscle and strength building. If you need advice that works, you have come to the right place. This forum focuses on building strength and muscle using the basics. You will also find that the Muscle and Brawn community stresses encouragement and respect. Trolls and name calling are not allowed here. No matter what your personal goals are, you will be given effective advice that produces results.

Please consider registering. It takes 30 seconds, and will allow you to get the most out of the forum.

Do you guys recommend it? im contemplating to do this because im an athlete(wrestling/sprinter) and i heard that high bar has a greater transfer to athletics than low bar. Also im running a weekly progression routine, texas method, and was wondering if the high bar squat would be good. i ask this because whenever i dont feel like i can lift up the weight i can always "spot" with my low back and help me get the weight up.

I want to know your guys' opinions. does it have more transfer to athletics? can i progress as easily as the low bar? does it have more risks than the low bar? ei more pressure on the spine.

thanks

__________________Goals

Squat - 315
Bench - 225
Deadlift - 350

GOT A LONG WAY TO GO

To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. ~Buddha

Experiment some, but remember even a high bar squatter keeps the bar on his traps and NOT on his spine. As far as transferring better to athletics, if your getting stronger then you'll be good, whichever hold you use.

If you really want to shift the focus of your lift then where you break is more important anyways. Break at the hips and you're going to bend over more and use more posterior chain, break at the knees and you'll get more quad. By break, I mean the first thing to move when you start your squat. I break at the hips, which means the very first things that happens when I squat is that I stick my butt out and bend my hips.

Wow i didnt even think of that, thanks. I think i break mostly at the hips. plus i do a low bar squat, i think that is why my quad development isnt where it should be with my squat but, ill try out high bar for a few months just to see how it is. i like the concept of it because you cant cheat as much

__________________Goals

Squat - 315
Bench - 225
Deadlift - 350

GOT A LONG WAY TO GO

To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear. ~Buddha

Just do it. I typically high bar on light to moderate weights when I'm further out from a competition. I transfer to low bar the last 6 weeks or so. They both have their benefits. As far as athletic ability goes neither one is going to make you more athletic but they both will make you a stronger athlete.

i've read Louie Simmons's defenses of wide stance squats, and i know it's a topic that generates a lot of rage among lifters, but i have to say that i rarely ever see a powerlifter who squats well -- even though they're very strong in all the right places. i don't think I'll ever be convinced that they don't simply find that form/depth too unpleasant. i think "reluctance to squat deep" is disguised as "this form works for me" or "this form allows me to squat more pounds."

and if you think big dudes can't squat huge weights with "close stance," "high bar" form -- those terms are silly to me -- check this out:

i know this sounds like i'm sucking up, but BendtheBar is literally the first big powerlifter i've seen who seems to truly respect the proper squat. even Ed Coan seems to fold his upper body to create an illusion of depth in every competition of his i've seen. everyone talks about "parallel." it's bullshit. proper squat is all the way down. you don't even have to use the words "all the way down" because "squat" already means that.